The Hampton Bays Fire Department may be required to pay $100,000 in maintenance costs every two years for a new carbon filtration system if they are found to be responsible for the contamination of two drinking water wells used by the hamlet’s municipal water system.
State Department of Environmental Conservation officials announced at the Hampton Bays Civic Association meeting on Monday that the fire department is under investigation by the DEC after routine testing of the Hampton Bays Water District’s wells located between 100 and 150 yards of the fire department’s main firehouse on Montauk Highway detected traces of two unregulated chemicals found in firefighting foam formerly used to put out gasoline fires.
Further testing revealed that the water contained 0.073 parts per billion, or ppb, which is “slightly” more than the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit of 0.07 ppb, according to Robert King, superintendent of the water district and also a commissioner with the Hampton Bays Fire Department.
The Hampton Bays Fire Department is currently the only site being investigated at this time, according to Brian Jankauskas, an environmental engineer with the DEC. HBWD customers are using water provided by nine other wells that presently meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards for PFOS and PFOA, according to the district.
The Hampton Bays Fire District’s attorney, Stanley Orzechowski, was not present at Monday’s meeting but said in a previous statement that the department would cooperate with the DEC but also would hire its own investigators to probe the 2-acre property.
None of fire department’s four fire commissioners returned phone calls on Tuesday.
A carbon filtration system will be installed on the two contaminated wells by next spring.
As of now, the two wells will be the only wells out of the hamlet’s 11 that are slated to get the costly filtration system, Mr. Warner said.
He explained that the system will remain in place for as long as it is needed, adding that “if it takes two years, they will be in place for two years, or if it takes 20 years, they’ll be there for 20 years.” Once the filtration system is in place the wells will be tested monthly for both PFOA and PFOS.
It is unknown at this time how long the two contaminated wells will be out of commission, but State Department of Health employee Steven Karpinski confirmed that “the exposure has been ceased.”